Toyo Ito, an architect known for his work with the tsunami-ravaged coastal regions of northeast Japan, has won what is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established in 1979 to honor a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.

Associated Press

Toyo Ito

Mr. Ito, 71, will be the sixth Japanese architect to receive the award, following in the footsteps of Church of the Light designer Tadao Ando and the late Kenzo Tange, who designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and taught at University of Tokyo during Mr. Ito’s attendance there.

Born to Japanese parents in Seoul during Japan’s occupation, Mr. Ito's half-century career initially focused on minimalist residences, but has since spanned to cover a wide range of projects, including flagship stores for Tod’s and Mikimoto in the glitzy Omotesando and Ginza districts.

In recent years, Mr. Ito has focused on public projects, such as the steel pipe tube-supported Sendai Mediatheque library completed in 2001.

“(Mr. Ito’s) personal creative agenda is always coupled with public responsibility. It is far more complex and riskier to innovate while working on buildings where the public is concerned, but this has not deterred him,” the award’s sponsor, Hyatt Foundation, said of this year’s recipient on its website Sunday. A “creator of timeless buildings,” the Foundation said, Mr. Ito is recognized for “infusing his designs with a spiritual dimension and for the poetics that transcend all his works.”

Since the quake and tsunami disaster, Mr. Ito has been active in the northeast recovery effort, advising local governments with the designing of their shelters for the displaced.

Mr. Ito warned against creating “mini-Tokyos” in the tsunami-swept region, and led three young architects to build a communal space project series named “Home-for-all”—a flat wooden structure in the form of traditional Japanese housing, with the emphasis on nostalgia and comfort over conceptual art. The Japan pavilion’s exhibition on the project in last year’s Venice Biennale International Exhibition, titled “Architecture. Possible Here?” won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.

“Do architects play any vital role in Japanese society?” Mr. Ito asked in a Mainichi Shimbun interview October 2011. “Construction experts have kept busy in the rebuilding, but few have called upon architects to take part. It’s sad, but we as architects need to reevaluate ourselves and questions our capabilities.”

The Pritzker medal will add to the internationally renowned architect’s impressive collection of awards, including the 2006 Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal and the 2002 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 8th Venice Biennale International Exhibition.